Chapter IV — Marine Mammal-Fisheries Interactions 
ies Service. In addition, owners of vessels engaged in 
fisheries that frequently take marine mammals must, 
if requested, accept the placement of natural resource 
observers on board their vessels or face revocation of 
their exemptions and imposition of a $5,000 fine. 
Fishermen engaged in fisheries determined to have 
only a remote possibility of taking marine mammals 
need not register with the Service or obtain an exemp- 
tion certificate. However, they must report all marine 
mammal mortalities incidental to their operations 
within 10 days of returning to port to avoid being 
liable for penalties. 
The 1988 amendments required the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, after opportunity for public 
comment, to publish a list of all U.S. fisheries, 
classifying them as Category I (those with frequent 
incidental takes), Category II (those with occasional 
incidental takes), or Category III (those with either a 
remote possibility of or no known incidental takes). 
Other Service responsibilities included establishing an 
observer program under which 20 to 35 percent of the 
operations by Category I vessels would be monitored; 
creating an alternative observer program if less than 
20 percent of the operations in a Category I fishery 
would be observed; implementing an information 
management system capable of processing and analyz- 
ing observer data and reports required from vessel 
owners engaged in Category I and Category II fisher- 
ies; and consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service 
before taking actions or making determinations 
involving marine mammal species under jurisdiction 
of the Department of the Interior. 
As noted above, the interim exemption is intended 
to govern marine mammal-fisheries interactions for 
five years. It is expected that before the interim 
exemption expires, Congress will reexamine the issue 
in light of information gathered under the exemption 
program and enact a new system for regulating 
incidental taking. Efforts to develop a regime to 
govern the take of marine mammals incidental to 
commercial fishing operations after 1 October 1993 
are discussed below. 
87 
Implementation of the Interim Exemption 
To implement the interim exemption for commer- 
cial fisheries, the National Marine Fisheries Service 
issued a series of regulations during 1989. Develop- 
ment of those regulations and other actions taken by 
the National Marine Fisheries Service and others 
during 1989, 1990, and 1991 to implement the interim 
exemption for commercial fisheries are discussed in 
previous annual reports. 
One of the responsibilities of the Service is to 
update, at least annually, the list of fisheries. The 
initial list of fisheries was published by the Service on 
20 April 1989. Each fishery was placed in one of 
three categories depending on the frequency with 
which marine mammals are taken. Since then the 
Service has revised the list several times based on 
observer data and other available information. 
The Service’s proposed changes to the list of 
fisheries for 1992 were published in the 16 January 
1992 Federal Register. Among other things, the 
Service proposed to recategorize the following fisher- 
ies: the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish 
trawl fishery from Category I to Category III; the 
Prince William Sound salmon driftnet fishery from 
Category I to Category II; the California setnet fishery 
for soupfin shark, yellowtail, and white sea bass from 
Category II to Category I; the southern New England 
and mid-Atlantic squid trawl fishery from Category II 
to Category III; and the mid-Atlantic coastal shad and 
sturgeon gillnet fishery from Category III to Category 
i. 
By letter of 2 March 1992 the Marine Mammal 
Commission commented on the proposed changes to 
the list of fisheries. The Commission noted that under 
the Service’s regulations the final list of fisheries for 
1992 should have been published on or about 1 
October 1991. The Commission therefore recom- 
mended that the Service review its procedures for 
updating the list of fisheries and implement whatever 
changes are necessary to meet the regulatory schedule. 
The Commission also recommended that the Service 
provide it and other interested parties with periodic 
summaries of the data collected under the interim 
exemption program, to enable reviewers to provide 
informed comments on the annual lists of fisheries. 
